The late-night Friday kick at Washington is tough on its own, but it comes on the heels of a back-to-back against Michigan and Ohio State. Not the most ideal outcome for Kirk Ferentz and Co.
Like most football coaches, Iowa football head coach Kirk Ferentz doesn't really care how his schedule lines up.
His goal is to obviously beat the teams in front of him, but his 2026 Hawkeyes are going to have to fight through a difficult obstacle to open Big Ten play.
The Athletic reported on Friday morning that the Oct. 10 contest between Iowa and Washington in Seattle was moved a day earlier to Friday, Oct. 9. Kickoff is set for 8 p.m. CST on FOX or FS1.
The Hawkeyes have played at least one late game each year since the Big Ten added four West Coast teams - UCLA in 2024 and Rutgers last season.
While both of those matchups were long cross-country roadtrips on a short week, the 2026 clash against Washington will be different for a plethora of reasons.
Most notably, it's the final game of Iowa's three-game gauntlet to open Big Ten play. The Hawkeyes will travel to Michigan, welcome what will likely be a top-5 Ohio State team to Kinnick Stadium, then travel to Seattle on very short rest.
For those of you doing the math at home, that's 5,000 miles in 14 days start conference action. Ferentz has publicly expressed his disdain with Friday kickoffs, and it's hard to blame him if he's frustrated with this schedule.
You couldn't have mapped out a tougher three-game stretch for an Iowa team that could have plenty of unanswered questions by the time league play rolls around.
If simply playing three high-caliber opponents in a row isn't enough, there's also not a bye week in between the Ohio State and Washington games. When the Hawkeyes last headed west to play UCLA two seasons ago, they had the luxury of enjoying a bye week before the trip, something the 2026 squad won't have.
Iowa could very well shut everyone up and win all three of these games, but the road to doing so just got even harder.
This is officially the toughest three-game stretch of the Ferentz era.
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HawkeyeRoundtable publisher Brad Schultz has covered the Iowa Hawkeyes since 2023. To send him story ideas, scoops, or criticize his writing, reach him at bradschultz@roundtable.io